The Family Stone
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day seven hundred and eighty-six: After Joanie lets something slip, Shelby considers her future with Emmett.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 37th cycle. Now cycle 38!_

_**PRE-CHRISTMAS NON-CHRISTMAS:** It's already my third holiday season of Gleekathon, woo! So happy about that :D Anyhoo, just to explain what I'm doing for it this year: How it goes is I always have a set of stories with Christmas-y titles but non-Christmas-y plots, so to give an air of the season but not too much ;) First year was '12 Days of Christmas', last year was 'Reindeer'. This year's theme is "Christmas Movies" :) It'll run from December 8th to 19th, after which I have a slightly bigger undertaking to take us to Christmas Eve (stay tuned and find out, ha! ;)). So here we go!_

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><p><strong><em>COMING SOON: "Cheat Sheet" - <em>**_So a lot of times I get people asking when one series or another will be updated next (sometimes from unregistered people, which makes it awkward 'cause I can't reply), and so a couple days ago I had this idea for this cheat sheet, so you guys could know, cycle to cycle, when certain series are coming! :) I'm not sure yet how to make it available, since this site hates links, but I'll think of something!_

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><p><strong>"The Family Stone"<br>Shelby & Beth, Emmett & Joanie, Shelby/Emmett  
>Sequel to 'Girls' Day Out' <strong>

It had become their tradition without really trying. On those mornings where Emmett had to get to work early, he would cross the yard from their house to Shelby's with Joanie and the girl would stay for breakfast with her and Beth. Emmett gave Shelby a quick kiss hello and gave Beth a funny faced greeting and once she'd laughed he went on his way, leaving the three 'ladies' together. Joanie helped Shelby with breakfast and they sat to eat.

"How's the book going?" Shelby asked, nodding to the massive tome she'd bought for her a few weeks back. Joanie pointed to her bookmark, sticking out from about three quarters into the book.

"I would have been done ages ago but school has been a mess," she shook her head, annoyed.

"You'll get there," Shelby promised.

"I better," Joanie sat back up. "It's so good…" she sighed.

"Did they find the guy yet?" Shelby asked. She'd been hearing all about the story from Joanie.

"Not yet!" she sighed, and Shelby laughed. "Alex is ahead of me, I told him if he told me what happened he would feel my wrath," she glared 'menacingly.'

"Don't mess with Joanie," Shelby smirked.

"Don't spoil Joanie," the girl corrected. They went on eating for a while, and Shelby could feel Joanie's eyes on her. Whatever was on her mind, she wasn't saying, which could mean one of two things: Either there was something wrong with her, which even without looking Shelby knew wasn't the case, or she was up to something…

"Want my bacon?" Shelby asked, looking to Joanie, and it took the girl a moment to snap out of her 'covert' staring. "Bacon, bacon," she waved a strip before her face and finally got a reaction.

"What? Oh…" her hand snatched up to get the bacon and eat it.

"Are you going to tell me what's got you so distracted that you didn't hear the words 'want my bacon?'" Joanie looked back to Beth in her high chair before looking back to Shelby; she was playing coy.

"Honestly?" she asked, and Shelby nodded. "I was thinking about my Mammy."

"Is that your grandmother?" Joanie laughed.

"Great grandmother," she explained. "Dad's grandmother. She died when I was ten. She was ninety-two and off her nut and just awesome," Joanie shook her head with a smile.

"And that's why you had that face you just had?" Shelby shared in the amusement. Joanie leaned on her elbows, conspiratorially.

"Do you believe in things happening when they're supposed to?"

"Sure," Shelby smiled. "Why?"

"Mammy had this ring, and it was passed down to my father when she died," she revealed. Shelby wasn't sure where this was going, so she kept quiet. "By the time my dad got it, he was already divorced from Nicole," Joanie went on, as though Shelby hadn't grasped it the first time. "My Nana always says that my dad got the ring right when he was supposed to, because you-know-who was never meant to get it," she clinched with a shy smile.

"And you were thinking about that now?" Shelby hesitated.

"I just wasn't sure what she meant before," Joanie shrugged, getting back to her plate. Shelby had to hand it to her, she could yank the rug right from under subtlety. She loved her for it, though it could be startling, especially with this story she'd just up and dropped on her.

"Right… Hurry up so I can take you to school, alright?"

"Three bites, then I brush my teeth and I'm ready to go," Joanie promised.

Soon they were off, first to drop off Beth and then Joanie. Heading on over to work, Shelby wasn't exactly expecting to have anything else but this bit with the ring running through her mind.

Was that something he thought about? Was he considering it, did he see that in their future? Or had he burned so deep by his first marriage to Nicole? Was he going to ask her, some day?

The thought had occurred to her once or twice, of course it had. For a while she'd never pictured herself on that road, didn't imagine she'd get the chance, or didn't care to try maybe… But then she'd never thought she'd get to be a mother either, after everything with Rachel, and her complications, but then she'd gotten Beth, and it had been beyond every last one of her expectations.

So then with her daughter in her life, Beth became a condition to her even thinking of dating, knowing that if she expected anything remotely serious then this person had to be someone she could see herself spending possibly the rest of her life with. That was a big leap to make, especially on someone she barely knew. Maybe that was why it had become okay with Emmett, because of the time it had taken. In the whole time before they had started going out, she'd gotten to know the man for who he was, as a person, as a father…

Seeing how Beth would respond to him, she knew part of it had to be for familiarity's sake, but all the same she did think about the importance he was gaining in her life. When he'd been ready to jump in, for them to try, together, that had been the part that was one of her biggest concerns. She'd thought about how Beth would no doubt identify the man as a father figure, and how she had to be sure, really sure, before she could take her own jump.

And then she'd taken that leap, went right in after him, seeing how for all her concerns over Emmett's becoming like a father to Beth, she hadn't factored in the way she herself had become like a mother to Joanie. That was just who they'd become and it had happened to slowly, so naturally, that there was just no way to be scared about any part of it.

So maybe she hadn't started off planning for the family life, but it had all been granted to her, gifted to her, and she couldn't imagine her life in any other way than as she had it, with Beth, and Emmett, and Joanie. And if he was to ask her to marry him, he…

"Damn it, Joanie…" Shelby mumbled under her breath, laughing lightly as she pulled into the parking lot. Now the idea was on her mind, so what was she supposed to do? She had no way to know if he was going to do it or not, and when it would be. It could be days, weeks, months… years… and all this time she'd know that somewhere in that house there was a box with a ring inside, a very important ring which had managed not to land on someone else's finger, because maybe it had been meant to belong to her all along… Now she just had to wait…

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******


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